Name of Restaurant: Big Foot Lodge
Location of Restaurant: 97 South Second Street, Memphis, TN
Date of Visit: July 5, 2006
We heard about the Big Foot Lodge on Progressive Talk AM 680. Since we love the station, we like to support it’s sponsors and spend our money with them. This was our first time eating at Big Foot Lodge although we had tried before. I say tried because we could not find a parking space! Parking in downtown Memphis is absolutely horrible. We found that if we wanted to go anywhere we had to pay to park in a lot and that was not worth it to us just to eat at a restaurant. This time around we planned on spending the day downtown riding the trolley, seeing the sights, etc so we payed to park.
Our first impression of the place was that it was very small! Maybe there was another room somewhere that we didn’t see, but from what we saw we were very happy we went there at a downtime because otherwise we might have had to wait. We got seated fairly quickly (we waited for a minute or two for someone to notice we were there) and began to peruse the menu. From hearing their advertisement on the radio I knew I wanted to try the BBQ Eggrolls. We normally do not get appetizers but these I just had to try. Our waitress finally got around to us and we put in our drink order (see 34 ounce beer in photo) and requested the eggrolls. The serving process was slow. We had to ask several times about the beer and if our appetizer was coming. When the eggrolls finally did get there we dug in. They did not disappoint. They were so delicious I was sorry when they were gone. While they were excellent, the price was a bit too high at $5.99 for 3 medium size eggrolls. I’d like to see that drop down by a dollar or so or give another eggroll. The other prices on the menu were your average prices, ranging from $5.99 for a hamburger and fries to $34.99 for Surf & Turf for two.
The Big Foot Lodge is famous for it’s 4 pound Sasquatch Burger (pictured). If you can eat the whole thing (including all toppings, etc) in an hour or less it’s free. While we would have loved to try one of those, we knew that we needed at least four more people dining with us to even think about finishing it. My husband opted for a hamburger and fries while I got the grilled chicken sandwich. Since I had an eggroll already I wanted to substitute my fries for the veggies. When the food came I almost spit out the sip of water I just took when I saw what they called a side of veggies. They were grossly over cooked carrots and peas (in some kind of awful looking ‘sauce’) in what I can only describe as a very, very small plastic cup. If I had eaten them it would have been maybe two forkfuls worth. Giving them the benefit of the doubt I did try a piece of carrot and I was sorry I did. They tasted as bad as they looked. Everything else was very good. I enjoyed my grilled chicken very much as my husband did his hamburger and fries.
When the bill came we got a bit of a surprise. We actually got charged .50 for substituting a heaping helping of fries for that tiny disgusting veggie! We brought it to the attention of our waitress and asked why she did not tell us there would be a charge. She apologized and said she didn’t realize there was a charge. She immediately took it off and apologized again. She got a bigger tip because of this.
All in all I would say our experience was a good one. I would eat there again if we decided to spend the day downtown.
Final Rating: 2.5 Stars (1 star off for parking and 1/2 star off for the “veggies”).
